Small chance the child will turn out badly

YOUR correspondent Ann Cronin (Irish Examiner letters, February 10) says that as a lone parent she has - according to Dr Edward Walsh - a “72% chance of raising a murderer and a 60% chance of a rapist”.

Now, given that not every person in society is a murderer or a rapist, such an interpretation is absolutely incorrect.

If one-in-1,000 people are murderers (taken, purely for calculation purposes - I think the actual numbers in Ireland are much smaller), then what Dr Walsh actually said was that of this 0.1% of the population, 72% of them would come from a fatherless family.

The odds of raising a murderer would therefore be 0.72 in 1,000, ie, a .072% chance or, if you use the ratios, a 72:28 chance that any murderer comes from a fatherless family.

Thankfully, either way the odds of rearing a murderer are small. Similarly with rapists.

Finally, to Dr Walsh, a man who should get huge plaudits for his successful career and his outstanding record at the University of Limerick, well done for bringing this topic into public debate.

Peadar Gill

Crossafehin

Virginia

Co Cavan